SMEs who are targeting an older demographic might find offline marketing more effective than its online counterpart, one expert believes.

Ray Jones of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, explained that as those who use the internet tend to be younger people, anyone using the medium to market something like cruises could end up missing their intended targets.

He said: "There's still a big [market] of people who have money, time and not the internet, and I'm thinking of the 80 pluses, who are tremendous spenders on leisure activities and educational things."

Mr Jones added that, because of this, it was vital people researched the market they are targeting and discovered what people's spending habits are.

"It depends how people's lifestyles [are], and whether it revolves around the internet or not. So there's still a place for [offline marketing]."

According to the Direct Mail Information Service, 67 per cent of consumer focused direct mail is opened.

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